Warren Gatland said he was a "happy clown" after his British & Irish Lions levelled the series with a 24-21 win over New Zealand in Wellington.
Gatland felt the final 10 minutes - in which the tourists scored two tries - were perfect in terms of aggressive rugby but accepts his players will need to be better in terms of discipline in next week's series decider.
Sonny Bill Williams was sent off after just 25 minutes of the second Test for a shoulder charge on Anthony Watson but it was the Lions who were the more persistent infringers, conceding 13 penalties to allow Beauden Barrett to kick the All Blacks in front.
Gatland was depicted as a cartoon clown in the New Zealand Herald in the build-up to the match but left Wellington in superb spirits.
"I'm a pretty happy clown this week," said Gatland. "I thought we were the better team and deserved to win, even with the red card.
"We gave away some soft penalties and we need to work on that for next week but I thought the better team won.
"In the last 10 minutes we were really aggressive. Guys came off their line and stopped the momentum of the All Blacks, who were very positive.
"I don't think we kicked enough in the first half. I think they kicked 16 times and we kicked nine and the weather conditions made it hard to catch the ball but we did stress them.
"We got in behind them and played some good rugby; they never really got in behind us and that was possibly always going to be the case with Sonny Bill Williams off the pitch.
"But we're pleased and we go to Auckland with all to play for."
Gatland is confident the Lions can address the disciplinary issues which plagued them in the second Test after watching his side fix the problem he identified with physicality after the first match in Auckland.
"The key is to build on the good things we did in this game," he said. "After every match you look at what you can fix for next time.
"Last week we spoke about the collision dominance that they had and we improved that this time - that gave us more momentum going forward.
"Discipline is a key issue for us now. We need to fix that and we need to be a bit more accurate with our kicking."